Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Gēr In Deuteronomy: Expanding Ancient Near Eastern Precedent For The Protection Of Vulnerable Classes, Josh Dunahoo

Seminary Masters Theses

The gēr in the Hebrew Bible is a legal classification representing persons who reside outside their ancestral lands with people outside of their kin. The status of the gēr is not static in the Bible. Rather, historical and textual evidence in the respective law codes informs the socioeconomic and religious standing of the gēr in Israelite society. In Deuteronomic tradition, the gēr is among the most vulnerable groups in Israel and is therefore appended to the ancient Near Eastern widow-orphan dyad in Deuteronomy. The first section of the present thesis traces the law codes and wisdom literature of ancient Near …

Liminal Spirituality: Why Religion Is Changing And How Churches Can Respond, Savoy Stevens

Seminary Masters Theses

This thesis examines the dynamic factors influencing religious disengagement in the United States and identifies five best practices for churches interested in responding to the growing number of “nones” and “dones.” Placing religious disengagement within the framework of Christian history, relative to the cyclical nature of religious movements, it confirms the occasion and purpose of the ensuing “liminal spirituality” and explores what many scholars suggest is a new era of Christian history. Factors influencing religious disengagement considered include; the impact of post-modern and metamodern cultural logic, the role of doubt in personal faith formation, the ways in which the Church …

Tamar’S Legacy: The Early Reception Of Genesis 38, Julianna Kaye Smith

Seminary Masters Theses

The story of Tamar and Judah is one of the Torah’s more morally complicated narratives. As such, interpreters throughout history, but specifically early Jewish interpreters, grappled with how to relay this story in their translations of the Hebrew Bible. Using the theories and methods of reception history, this study demonstrates how the translations these early interpreters produced shed light on the dynamic relationship between a text and those who interpret it. Examining both the Greek Septuagint and Aramaic Targumim, the study identifies places in the translations where hints of the socio-historical position and theological commitments of the translators and their …

Towards A Theology Of The Single Mother, Stephanie Townes

Seminary Masters Theses

Families are changing. The white picket fence nuclear family with a mother, father, 2.2 kids and a dog is no longer the norm for American society. Families look less and less like “traditional families.” Blended families, children born out of wedlock, cohabitation, step-families, multigenerational families, adopted children, single parent families, foster parents, and homosexual partners raising children are all part of the fabric of society. Society has changed so much that, as feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether points out, “it is no longer possible to speak of one predominant “normative” model of family.”

The Dual Textual History Of The Song Of Hana In The Ethiopic Manuscript Traditions, Brian Christopher Jeanseau

Seminary Masters Theses

In Ethiopia, the Song of Hana has been transmitted in two types of manuscripts—biblical manuscripts and Psalters. This thesis compares the textual histories of this song within both manuscript types and shows that these are actually two separate traditions, not one tradition as previously assumed. Chapter one starts with descriptions of what these two manuscript types are and what the Song of Hana is. In chapter two, we briefly discuss some background issues—the scholarly efforts that have taken place in the Ethiopic Old Testament so far and the history of the Judeo-­‐Christian religion in Ethiopia which has shaped these two …

Beyond Change- Overcoming The Barriers To Small Rural Church Revitalization, Allen F. Wachter

Seminary Masters Theses

Many of the rural churches of the Free Methodist Denomination in the Northeast region of the United States have experienced substantial stagnation and/or decline of their attendance rates over the past five years. This begs the questions, "What is preventing these churches from being revitalized so they too can be used as vessels to grow the Kingdom of God?" Though many obstructions to kingdom growth1 exist, this study focuses on the following five barriers: resistance to change, under-utilization of spiritual gifts, relational dysfunction, apathy, and lack of love. The source of these barriers was discovered through personal observation and experience …

Atonement In Hosea And The Prodigal Son: Relationality As Personhood And The Being Of God, Stephen Sherwood

Seminary Masters Theses

My project will provide a survey of traditional atonement metaphors, with a particular emphasis upon contrasting penal substitution with a covenantal relational understanding of the atonement, and will then posit that a covenantal relational approach is ideal for resonance with a postmodem audience.

I will seek to determine whether any single biblical metaphor or cluster of metaphors provides an interpretive matrix for all discussion of the atonement in a way that is both biblically faithful and conceptually accessible to a postmodem world. I contend that atonement discussions in typical evangelical contexts may be both biblically insufficient and culturally inadequate and …

Jesus And The Breath Of Life: An Exegesis Of John 20:22 In Historical And Modern Interpretation An Obscure And Mysterious Text, Douglas W. Balzer

Seminary Masters Theses

John 20:22 is an obscure and mysterious text where Jesus is represented as breathing upon his disciples in a manner that appears to resemble the insufflation of humanity by God, or the breathing of the "breath of life" in Adam's nostrils in Genesis 2:7. Through an exegetical study of Johannine text and the Greek term έμφυσάω in relationship with the LXX, Apocrypha and Qumran Scrolls, a direct correlation is established between the theology of John and the theology in the LXX. The relevant historical, Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers, and modem interpretations are examined in order to discover what crucial issues …

Reading Scripture With Both Eyes Open: God's Story Could Be Hazardous To Your Status Quo, Winn Griffin

Seminary Masters Theses

The real-world ministry problem addressed in this dissertation is: Scripture is often read and studied in a de-storied, fragmented way as a result of the Enlightenment Project. This problem will be addressed by: proposing a theological narrative (Stor/) as the alternative way of reading and studying Scripture.

Section 1 will discuss the problem of how readers of Scripture can be helped to understand themselves within the larger narrative of the Story presented from Genesis to Revelation. Section 2 will discuss the problem of reading the text of Scripture in a fragmented way as a result of the Enlightenment's propensity toward …

Jeremiah, Defender Of Covenant Faithfulness, Duane A. Brudevold

Seminary Masters Theses

In this study of the topic of true/false prophecy, the author has chosen to review the writings of Jeremiah to determine what criteria were used by Jeremiah, and perhaps the later redactors of the book we call Jeremiah, to determine the truthfulness of Jeremiah's prophecies and the falsity of the prophecies of the temple prophets in Jerusalem. The author pays particular attention to the quotations which Jeremiah says are spoken by his opponents. An attempt is made to determine if these quotations of the opponents give us any clues to Jeremiah's fervent opposition to their statements. The author's analysis shows …

Manasseh In Scripture And Tradition: An Analysis Of Ancient Sources And The Development Of The Manasseh Tradition, Steven A. Graham

Seminary Masters Theses

This is an examination of the history of the interpretation of King Manasseh in 2 Kings 21:1-18; 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 and several related verses. This study is undertaken in order to answer three related questions. First, why are there two differing accounts of Manasseh - one painting him as the model of evil and the other as the model of repentance? Next, what is the Manasseh tradition, and how has it developed within the textual histories of both Jewish and Christian milieus? Finally, what is the discrepancy between the biblical presentations of Manasseh and his reputation according to tradition? The …

The Death Of Postmillennialism In The Holiness Tradition Following World War I, Tiffany Enos

Seminary Masters Theses

Millennialism is an ancient component of religion, taking shapes and forms that vary widely from culture to culture, yet sharing enough in common that historian Frederic Baumgartner can describe an end-time scenario that sounds too familiar to be a generalization, even as it slides easily into the faiths of Buddhists, Aztec Indians, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. 1 Over the centuries, generation after generation has found reason to believe theirs would be the last, and several millennial groups have risen with fervor and conviction, only to see the promised end time come and go, and life carry on without them. …

Women In First Corinthians: A Perspective On Paul, Carole Gruener

Seminary Masters Theses

As women struggle for acceptance as leaders within the Christian community there is no more controversial teachings about women found in the Bible than those ofthe apostle Paul. In one breath he writes to the church in Galatians, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal.3: 28 NRSV). When taken at face value this passage eliminates ethnic, social and gender barriers; in this verse Paul recognizes and addresses the dignity and worth of all humanity.

Women In First Corinthians: A Perspective On Paul, Carole Gruener

Seminary Masters Theses

As women struggle for acceptance as leaders within the Christian community there is no more controversial teachings about women found in the Bible than those of the apostle Paul. In one breath he writes to the church in Galatians, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Ga1.3: 28 NRSV). When taken at face value this passage eliminates ethnic, social and gender barriers; in this verse Paul recognizes and addresses the dignity and worth of all humanity.

Christianity In Latvia In The Twentieth Century, Liva Fokrote

Seminary Masters Theses

This paper is about Christianity in Latvia in the twentieth century. The country of Latvia is located on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea in Northeastern Europe. Christianity was brought to this country at the end of the twelfth century. Only in the twentieth century did the Christian Church in Latvia become truly indigenous and diverse.

The Church history in Latvia began with the crusading attempts of German bishops and religious orders that brought Roman Catholicism to Latvia at the end of the twelfth century. The Catholic bishops and religious orders dominated both the ecclesiastical and political life in …